What's the difference between a Web Developer and a Web Designer?
If you can't figure it out, don't worry, you're not alone! Often confused by businesses and marketing agencies, it's important to point out the distinctions when working with a client.
The way I explain it is to think about building a car. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla puts it this way: the Designer comes up with the vision of the car - what it's going to look like, color schemes, layout and shape, materials used and the general look and feel of the machine. The Engineer takes these concepts, images and other media, and turns the vision into a car.
A Web Designer is like the car Designer, responsible for developing a vision of how the website will look, feel, act and function. Lots of aspects are included in this including user research and information architechure, typography (use of Fonts as they relate to the design), as well as the GUI (graphical user interface) design.
A Web Developer is like the car Engineer, caring more about the code. Using different programming languages including HTML, CSS, JavaScript, a web developer will go through the existing web site to make sure it's bug-free (there are no errors in the coding, links, images, etc.), and that the website works the way the client wants. A Web Developer can also act as liason to the Designer, figuring out if the designs work and coming up with solutions to the code problems as they relate to the Design. Developers cover a wide range of services including programming the UI, maintaining server-side of the website as well as integrating video, media, pictures and sound.
Web Designers go way beyond just the look and feel of a website. Web design impacts performance in search engines which ultimately affect your business' bottom line.
To put it another way, a Web Developer builds, creates and maintains websites, media platforms, social networks and web applications.
I am primarily what's called a "Full-Stack" Developer, with knowledge of both front and back-end development. I can provide a wide range of relevant services.
Typically a "Front-End" Developer, handles all aspect of the coding and mockup design for the website. Details include fluency in HTML, CSS and JavaScript, handling of version control software, using framerworks like React for example, to build modular applications, understanding responsive design principals, knowledge of browser optimization tools, technical testing and debugging knowledge, understanding web performance and automation tools, knowledge of the command line.
The "Back-End" Developer provides more technical skills that include writing programs that power the whole system, maintaining the server that hosts the website, maintaining the application and any databases.
A Full-Stack Developer such as myself will assist clients with a variety of development assistance including a deep understanding of front-end libraries and frameworks, proficiency in website optimization (improving side/page load times), ability to build the site's backend with programming languages (or hire/manage someone who does this), handling sysadmin tasks, ability to run SQL queries on databases and the ability to manage application deployment, server upgrades and integrations.